Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

Please stay with Us is the second message coming from this years budget consultation. Your participation is needed next year as well, and beyond. Not just so you can own the budget but ….

 

You should stay with us because ratepayer involvement in the budget process can only bring about a better budget. A budget owned by our ratepayers. If you agree with this I simply ask you to please stay with us.

I cannot guarantee what impact you have had over this years budget but I can say I believe your councillors, your elected representatives, have heard you. Watch out for changes to the budget when it goes before council on that traditional last Monday of June.

Here is the second reason to stay with us.

As you know next March is an election to detrmine the next State Parliament. At this point in time it would appear that the Liberal Party is in the box seat; their election to lose as it were.

The Liberals rate capping pledge will be the Sword of Damocles sitting over our heads. Their belief is that Councils are not capable of determining a budget in your best interests. They believe that a centralised (sounds like something the Labor Party would do) bureaucracy is better qualified to detrmine what your local needs are.

Councils take their budgets out to you for your input. This will not happen under the Libs scheme.

As I am sure we will see at the end of this month your input will influence the final budget outcome. Interestingly the focus of our community was not on rate capping, unlike what will be the focus of the new bureaucracy. The communities attention was focused on the priorities of programs in the draft.

I finish this blog as I started it. Please stay with us.

Particularly if you would prefer to be a contributor rather than hand it over to the State Government’s new department. Who would you prefer?